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40 years ago, the city region had over 15 stores selling records. Here's how they were described in a city guide called Bawlamer: An Informal Guide To A Livelier Baltimore from 1974, published by the Citizens Planning and Housing Association.

Athenaikon Music Center (4717 Eastern Ave.)
Greek records, periodicals, and cookbooks. A must for budding belly dancers. Downtown Sounds (529 N. Howard St.)
In the heart of downtown shopping district. Records and tapes. The sounds were from Broadway to soul. For The Record, Inc. (Howard & Fayette St., 217 E. Baltimore St., Reisterstown Road Plaza)
Baltimore's discount record shop. Sales weekly, largest collection of contemporary records. Excellent stock of standards, folk, classical, and "old rock". The staff was knowledgeable and helpful in all areas. Italia Kanta (3512 E. Lombard St. )
A converted rowhouse in the heart of Highlandtown, this store was the place to go for …

40 years ago, the city region had over 25 booksellers. Here's how they were described in a city guide called Bawlamer: An Informal Guide To A Livelier Baltimore from 1974, published by the Citizens Planning and Housing Association.

Aquarian Age Bookstore (813 N. Charles St.)
As the name would indicate, offered selections in mind-consciousness-body expansion, etc. Baltimore Museum Of Art (Art Museum Drive)
Wide selection of art-related books, both hardbound and paperback. The Black Book (2607 W. North Ave.)
Carried a large collection of black culture, black history, and related material. Offered fiction and non-fiction, children and adults sections. Book Fair (3121 St. Paul St.)
If you were worn out from rummaging through uncatalogued, dust-laden stacks, this neat, well-stocked, well-organized shop may have been just what you were after. Bookyard (817 S. Broadway)
If you were ready for dust again, the Bookyard offered f…

The Baltozine Roundup is our regular blog feature wherein we take a look at what national periodicals are saying about Baltimore-area arts, events, people, and places.

In Fretboard Journal (#25), Peter Szego's article "Building A New Old Banjo" talks to local banjo makers Kevin Enoch and Banjo Pete Ross. "And while Enoch became best known for his interpretations of banjos from this historic period [turn of the 20th century], in time he researched earlier styles of construction. These days he's equally known for his Dobson-style banjos, which are based on the instruments built by the Dobson clan in the 1870s. Enoch's assistant, Pete Ross, is something of a banjo time-traveler himself. Under the name Jubilee Banjos, Ross crafts gourd banjos based on instruments played by enslaved Africans in the Americas as early as the late 17th century."The new issue of Print Magazine (#66.4) has a feature called "Killing Time", where they talk to different des…

I'll be on WYPR's (88.1FM) The Signal this evening at 7PM (and again Saturday at 1PM) to discuss summer reading suggestions, and I have a quite a few - covering fiction, non-fiction and graphic novels.

You can only talk about so many books on the radio, so stop
by the store to see what's new - there have been a lot of great books that have come out so far this summer.